


Tangle & Whisper: Beginnings

by BuddaBean



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW Comics), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Backstory, Childhood Trauma, Drama, Effects of War, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Original Character(s), Psychological Trauma, Some angst, Whisper Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:09:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28465092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BuddaBean/pseuds/BuddaBean
Summary: Every tale has a beginning. Every plot has an introduction. Everyone has their own stories to tell, stories that differ and divert in ways we cannot even begin to imagine, but in their uniqueness they can paradoxically overlap and converge and in the chaos that ensues things can be revealed that can change one's perceptions on themselves, their loved ones and life in general.The tales of Mimic and Whisper are no exception. Strikingly similar but completely different. And it takes little for the course of these former allies turned bitter enemies to change forever.Told through from two perspectives through retellings and mask recordings, all is revealed. From how The Diamond Cutters first met to the how Mimic travelled down his dark road, leaving terror and destruction in his wake, to the eventual meeting between the two, strap yourselves in for a story about trust, betrayal and the impact of seemingly small decisions.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3





	1. Ground Zero

The sounds of chains shifting and crinkling ricocheted off the walls as The Inmate made his way down the corridor. The rows of fluorescent lights beaming overhead stained it a painful white, which did not help with The Inmate’s already dehydrated condition. _Could this place be any more pristine?!_ He thought to himself as he shuffled along the stainless tiles. Despite the flattering choice of words, he did not intend them as a compliment. He’d seen glimpses of the rest of the prison. He’d seen the bars of the cells, many sporting patches of rough orange from years of rust. He’d seen the walls and floors, over time developing a dark greenish-yellow tinge due to the lack of cleaning. By contrast, the route to wherever he was going had seemingly been void of any imperfections. No cracks in the walls, no random mounds of dirt, (none that he could notice anyway, his eyes were still adjusting to the harsh lights). It wasn’t that he was particularly ungrateful, he just found it amusing how Everhold prison’s most feared and reviled resident was getting treated to the luxury of going to a part of the facility that didn’t seem to violate a health regulation of some kind. The Inmate wasn’t actually sure where he was going and why he had to go there, but this was definitely preferable to spending his days locked in a cell made specifically for him. He still kept on shuffling along, his legs still getting used to moving for the first time in months.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The smell of steel and saltwater hung heavy over the rolling waves. The midday sun beamed over Clove Sea, creating a haze that distorted the view of the structures slightly. Despite this, the multiple steel islands were still clearly visible from quite far out. They loomed over the waters, carrying with them a feeling of emptiness and loss.

A longing for a happier past, carried away with the wind. Two Omnipotence hovercrafts descended upon what remained of the helipad, out hopping a wolf out of one and a lemur and a very unwell beetle out the other.

“Come on Jewel, you never got sea-sick on our other adventures, but a little ride over a pond and now you decide to feel queasy?”

“Okay first off, we just spent ha- *HIC!*- half an hour traveling over a sea in the blazing summer heat. Sec- *HRLM! - ondly, when we go on water related adventures I’M the one who pilots the vehicles Tangle!”

“Pfft, you're just saying that because you didn’t get to drive.”

“YOU WERE THE ONE BEGGING TO PILOT THE HOVERCRAFT YOU STUPID- oh god I think I’m gonna hurl…”

“Ok now you’re just making stuff up. You can back me up on this, right Whisper? Whisper?”

Whisper was standing on the edge of the helipad, looking over the rest of the base. She didn’t seem too focused on Tangle and Jewel’s squabble.

“Hey, something on your mind?”

“ _Not much, just, reminiscing_.”

“Are they happy thoughts at least?”

Whisper answered back with a shrug.

“*sigh* This must be a pretty tough experience for you, I get that. Moving out of this place, especially after everything that’s happened. Are you completely sure you want to go through with this?”

“ _I am sure. Like, I’ve pretty much moved in with you guys already. I just..I don’t know how I feel right now_.”

“You did say that you didn’t have anything super important to take with you.”

“ _Yeah. It’s mostly about saying goodbye I guess._ ”

There was a period of silence between them. Jewel soon joined them, her cheeks still sporting a slight green tinge. She was eventually the first to break the silence as the sound of a notification pinged out.

“Tails says that he’ll be here in about 30 minutes to help collect the stuff. Maybe we could get them ready now so we save time when he arrives.”

“Yeah, and maybe while we’re at it we could actually take a look around and maybe learn more about this place. That’s if you’re fine with it though.”

Whisper wasn’t quite sure how to respond. Coming to the base certainly wasn’t an easy task mentally after all that had happened. In some ways she felt responsible for the incident, as if the eyes of her dead friends were staring daggers into her back, like her consciousness was being drowned under oceans of guilt. She did not enjoy coming to the Diamond Cutters’ base anymore.

On the other hand, there was a reason she still kept coming back. She obviously had some things left behind, sure. Some utensils, books, pods for the wisps etc., but that was just what she told Tangle and Jewel so that they would come along to help. Not that they needed much convincing to begin with, they were her friends after all.

In truth, Whisper returned to these platforms standing over the sea for the same reasons she wanted to leave instantly when she did get there. She felt those daggers, she felt the pressure under those oceans, and she wanted to show that she could deal with the pain, she wanted to show that she could swim. She really did want to say goodbye, she just realised that she didn’t want to do it alone.

Eventually, after a prolonged silence on her part, Whisper finally replied, “ _Well, I don’t think I’ve actually given you a proper tour of the place, and Jewel hasn’t been here before so… Yeah, yeah let’s do it._ ” Whisper said as a smile slowly formed across her face for the first time since returning to her former home.

“YEAH!”

“That’s wonderful! So, where do we start?”

 _“I guess I could tell you what the islands were actually used for. The one right ahead is the main island where we had the sleeping quarters, the kitchen, the watch tower and barracks, the essentials basically. The island to the east over there is just an abandoned storage facility for the previous inhabitants of the base, same with that island way over there._ ”

“The one on the left?” Jewel asked.

_“No, the one behind- wait yeah that one actually haha. The one I thought you were talking about got destroyed in our last fight with Mimic. Um, anyway, you guys wanna head to the main part of the base now? There’s probably a decent amount of stuff to sort through.”_

“Uh, yeah sure. Jewel, you can fly me over right?”

“Of course, just hope I’m not too ill anymore.” she said with a taunting smirk.

“You’re seriously still angry about that?” “I am seriously still angry about that, thanks for asking.”

Whisper watched on, trying and failing to suppress a giggle.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There was a large black door at the end of the corridor, with a rather bulky looking keypad on the wall to the right of it. One of the two guards in charge of handling The Inmate stepped up and after typing for an inordinate amount of time, the door opened with a large heave, as if the room it was connected to finally had an opportunity to breathe.

This room was aesthetically identical to the rest of this part of the prison. The same tiling, same blinding lights. In the centre was a square table, with two chairs on opposite ends of each other. On the table was a contraption of some kind with a series of wires connecting to and fro, and in the chair closest to the door sat a rather unassuming silver fox scribbling down on a notepad. He didn’t seem to pay too much attention to The Inmate and his caretakers initially, but his shiny ears perked up at the sound of one of the guards clearing their throat, none too subtly making their presence known. Turning around to face them, he offered a rather enthused greeting.

“Gentlemen, wonderful of you to finally make it. Andy, Steel, really appreciate the work you put into taking care of our most esteemed guest.” The cheetah and chipmunk respectively offered nods as The Guest responded with an aggressive eye roll.

“And speaking of said guest, uh let me get my spectacles quick, ah yes **Mimic T. Octo** , though I’m going to assume people refer to you as Mimic, correct?”

“They should refer to me as Mimic.”

“Perfect, would you please take a seat over there.”

“Ah ah ah, gentlemen-” The fox said to the guards as they grabbed hold of Mimic’s arms, “-I’m sure Mr Octo can make it to his seat perfectly on his own.”

“I told you to call me Mimic, hairball.” “Right right, Mimic. Sorry, formalities and all that, come, take a seat. On the topic of formalities, I believe it’s time for an introduction. My name is Dr Alex Vulp and I’ll be your psychiatric examiner for today.”

“Thrilling.”

“The procedure for today will be fairly simple. I’m going to ask you a series of questions relating to your background and your motivations, but I do want to make it clear that my involvement in this will be minimal. You will have the opportunity to present your side of the story, and with your full cooperation we can avoid dragging out this process any longer than either of us would wish to. Any questions before we begin?”

“Yes, what does ‘full cooperation’ entail and why should I feel the need to have to give it to you?”

Alex sat silent for a moment. A moment just long enough for him to carefully consider his words but not too long so as to appear to cede control to Mimic.

“Okay, to answer your first question, full cooperation simply means that you offer up any and all relevant, accurate and truthful information. As an answer to your second, may I direct your attention to the machine on your left.” “You know I was actually just about to ask what the heck this thing is supposed to be anyway.” “This is a state-of-the-art lie detection unit. Once this bracelet and headpiece are connected around your wrist and forehead respectively, your heart rate and temperature will be measured in order to make sure that you are only telling the truth. Any and all suspicious changes will be noted and if it is found that you were lying then I will have no choice but to administer an electric current that will course throughout your body for a 3 second duration, and between you and me, I don’t think you would particularly enjoy that.”

Mimic could only grimace as the guards attached the machinations of wiring and latches attached to his left wrist and around his forehead, a process made harder thanks to his tentacles.

“A lie detector huh? That’s your plan? Listen, Alex, I’ve played this game many, many times. I’ve sat in front of dressed up rich kids like you who act like you can dissect a person’s entire history by finding out what toothpaste they used that morning. I’ve been hooked up to lie detectors. Whatever they’re supposed to accomplish hasn’t worked, and whatever you’re trying to accomplish won’t work today. So I suggest you stop wasting your time.” Mimic spat out his words, trying to leverage whatever control he could in his favour.

“That is understood, Mimic, which is why we have specifically commissioned Mr. Miles Prower, or ‘Tails’ as you may likely know him to create this machine especially for you.”

“You literally got this designed by a child?” Mimic laughed.

“By the same child who constructed the holding cell that you have tried and failed to escape from.”

Mimic’s laughs stopped as abruptly as they started.

“Am I correct, Mimic?”

“No -AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHMAKEITSTOPMAKEITSTOPMAKEITSTOPDAMNIT!”

“Now that you’ve gotten a demonstration, I believe we can begin your evaluation proper. You may start when you are ready.”

Vulp’s words were largely drowned out by Mimic’s hyperventilating.

The inmate eventually regained his composure, and after a long death glare at the fox who sat mostly unfazed, he finally began to speak.

“Fine, I’ll tell my tale, but don’t expect anything pleasant.”

“I never was.”

Mimic shuffled in his seat and took a deep breath.

“It all started on the day that I was born.”

“Really?” Alex couldn’t help but furrow a brow.

“Well in all honesty it started a couple of months before that.”

“And I assume this will be relevant to the material circumstances you were born into?”

“More than that doctor. Soon you’ll understand, understand that in this world and with what I’ve done, **that people like me never had a choice to begin with**.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*TING

The ancient lights buzzed overhead at the click of the switch next to the entrance, much to Whisper’s surprise. _Huh, works just fine_. She thought to herself. The lounge was fairly sparse, not containing much other than a fridge with whatever food it had left far beyond the threshold of edible. On the left was a couch that was largely intact save for the unhealthy coating of dust that had accumulated there over time, something Tangle hadn’t realised until after launching herself onto it face first, resulting in an explosion of dust particles and lint, playing out to an orchestra of her attempts to cough and spit the fluffies out. The walls were covered with a collage of anti-Eggman paraphernalia, Resistance posters, maps, reminders and newspaper clippings. A broken table stood as a mark of Whisper’s last time in the base.

On the wall ahead were three masks.

Three masks which represented a brighter time in her life.

Three masks that stood in remembrance of comrades gone too soon.

Three masks that reminded her of what he did, and what he deserved.

Never forget. Never forgive.

“I assume these belonged to the Diamond Cutters.”

Jewel’s words caught Whisper by surprise. Jewel spent her time taking in the base’s interior, reading articles from newspapers long defunct and reminders on sticky notes long unfulfilled. She too saw the masks. It didn’t take her long to figure out to whom they belonged, and why they hung from the wall.

_“Yeah, they did.”_

“My sincerest condolences. I know it isn’t much, but-”

_“Oh no, it’s fine thank you. I needed that. By the way, where’s Tangle?”_

“Dunno, probably went to dust herself off somewhere. Should we look for her maybe?"

_“Nah, I think she’ll be fine.”_

Almost immediately a scream followed by a loud crash could be heard from the right side of the lounge, seemingly originating from the storage room. Whisper instantly readied her wispon, choosing her cyan wisp for its laser ability in order to take out any threats from range. Equipping her mask she rushed into the room.

 _“TANGLE! SIT TIGHT I’M COMING!”_ She yelled into the darkness, the vague outline of a pile of boxes extinguishing any worries of an intruder, but it did little to slow down her haste.

“Oh goodness I hope this isn’t serious.” Jewel said as she came in, looking for a light switch. As she flicked it on, her expression dropped from concern to mild disappointment and embarrassment.

“Seriously Tangle?”

“I have a perfectly reasonable, detailed and concise reason for this.” Tangle said as she tried to wriggle her way out of the self-imposed avalanche of boxes and the contents of which she found herself under.

“Boxes suck.”

“Tangle, we were so worried. We thought that there was an intruder. What were you doing in the storage room in the first place?”

“Well, you said Tails was gonna be here soon so I wanted to get to work and see what I could get ready.” Said Tangle as Whisper helped her up. “Having said that, I probably should’ve just waited.” A tin can conveniently fell off the top shelf as she said that. “Yeah definitely should have waited. I’m really sorry Whisper. Now I’ve just created even more work for us.”

_“Actually Tangle, I think you may have just done me a huge favour.”_

“Wait I did, I mean of course I did yeah, absolutely! ...Okay seriously what did I do?”

She turned around to see Whisper with a book in her hands and Jewel standing curiously beside. On the top of the cover was a crest of some kind. From what she could make out, the foreground appeared to feature an azure boat over a blue sea, with a rising sun in the background brightening up the sky. Below it was a portrait of a wolf with her ponytail tied up and a wide radiating smile, showing off her bright blue coloured braces.

“Was this you?” She asked, her bewilderment and curiosity echoing through her voice.

_“Yeah. This was my highschool yearbook the year before the war. Sunset City Academy if I remember correctly . I’ve been looking for it for ages. Here’s me, here’s Slinger on our school’s soccer team, Smithy at our local science fair. Man, I’d thought I’d never find this.”_

“Wait so, you met the Diamond Cutters at school?” Jewel inquired.

_“Mhm.”_

“Okay you are definitely telling us that story. Come on, let’s get comfy.”

Tangle led the way into the lounge with Jewel and Whisper following close behind. Whisper and Tangle sat on stools they had found in the storage room, while Jewel made her way to the chair in the corner of the room to the right of the entrance. They had all silently but collectively agreed to avoid the lint couch. It took some time for Whisper to begin as Tangle had already launched a barrage of questions her way.

 _“Well uh, I guess it wouldn’t hurt to go into detail.”_ Whisper said as she breathed in.

_“It all started the day I was born.”_

“Wait seriously?” Tangle said with a snicker.

_“Trust me it becomes important later.”_


	2. Foundations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The piece slowly fall into place as the pasts of our protagonists start to take shape. Mimic tells the tale of his rigorous youth while Whisper recalls the first of many near death experiences and the beginnings of the Diamond Cutters.

“I never really knew my parents, you know.” Mimic finally said. It took time for him to start speaking, between long swigs of water and looking down at his thumbs, faking coughs in between. Dr Vulp was managing to hold resolute, though the thought of giving him an unannounced electrocution had crossed his mind more than once.

“Is that so?” 

“Yeah. I spent most of my childhood being passed around orphanages and foster homes and eventually ended up homeless ‘cus no one in the city wanted to keep me. It was priceless.”

“Sounds like you had an...interesting upbringing so to speak. Can you recall any positive experiences with your foster caretakers?”

“Um, well there was that one time I stole this one couple’s diamond wedding ring. Made some really good money off of that. They weren’t too happy when they found out though, not that it particularly matters to me.”

“Uh huh. Well were there any caretakers who you thought treated you well, like say, gave you gifts or maybe taught you valuable lessons in your eyes?”

“Mmm, no.”

“None at all? Not even one?”

"Well there was one guy, a big bear dude, can’t remember if he had a wife or not. I liked him, mostly because he chose to mostly leave me alone. Think of it as a mutually beneficial relationship: he doesn’t annoy me, I don’t annoy him, or try not to at least. And it worked for a while.”

“For a while? What changed?”

“I was getting to that stupid. Anyway, see this bear guy had other foster kids there as well, specifically these two leopard lookin’ idiots, and they were just **insufferable.** They knew that I preferred to spend time alone, which is why they made consistent attempts to annoy me at every turn. ‘What’s the matter squidface?’ ‘Don’t you want to hang out with your _family_ squidface?’ ‘ **HOW ABOUT WE PLAY A GAME** **_SQUIDFACE_ ** **?!** ’ Mimic shouted as his face suddenly turned yellow with dark brown spots appearing, shifting and contorting into a face with a smile from ear to ear under a whiskered snout. The outburst made one of the guards jump, the other nervously laughing to cope with the sudden tension. Vulp remained stoic, but couldn’t stop sweat beading over his brow.

Mimic sunk back into his seat, his face returning to normal. He stared at the floor, almost embarrassed that he became so angered, that he let his cool slip. That he showed his vulnerability.

“Probably wasn’t a very positive experience after all.”

“Yeah no kidding, Vector. Real great psycho-analysis you-”

“Would you say this incident contributed to your distrust of other people?” 

“W-What?”

“Do you believe that your encounters with your foster ‘families’ if I can use that term contributed to your general mistrust of others, that they maybe…” Vulp tried to find his words. “Maybe led to you having this sort of ‘lone wolf’ mentality where.. you felt you couldn’t really trust anyone and thus had to achieve your..goals, on your own? You are free to correct me if necessary”

“Heh, heh heh heh heh heh. Oh wow Alex. You know, like, when you’re in a math exam, and you answer a question correctly even though the method was just absolutely, atrociously bad.”

“Happened to me on a few occasions.” Alex responded in an attempt to be cordial.

“Yeah figures, anyway yeah you’re right about the whole ‘mistrust of others’ thing, yeah that’s right I guess, everything else is just nonsense. First off, no I’m not a ‘lone wolf, whatever the heck that’s supposed to mean, and secondly, while my experiences with my self-proclaimed guardians weren’t pleasant, they meant Jack-diddly squat in terms of why I do what I do.”

“Okay then.” Alex said as he wrote down on his notepad.

“Seriously, what the heck is this? I’ve had better “psychiatric evaluations” freeloading freaks wasting away on the side of the road. Absolute waste of my time.”

“Oh well that’s a shame. I was just trying to connect the dots, you know. See what part of your past may have led to you being in here. Things like being betrayed by your team for instance. I was going to ask you about that but-”

“Oh those idiots. Listen, I did what I had to do to the Diamond Cutters. You’re damn right that it’s me they betrayed.”

“I wasn’t talking about the Diamond Cutters Mimic.”

Mimic immediately froze.

“You mean, them, don’t you?”

Dr Vulp responded with a nod.

Mimic leaned back into his seat, running his hand over his face and exhaled, before making eye contact with the fox once again.

“Ugh, fine, took you long enough then. Fine, let me tell you the story of why I ended up here. A story of the day my eyes were opened for the first time.”

* * *

“ _Have I ever told you guys why I whisper?_ ”

“Hmm, no actually.” said Jewel.

“Yeah, why do you do that? I’ve been meaning to ask for a while.”

_“Okay, so you guys know about Grey Horizons Bay right?”_

"OOH, OOH! Eggman has like, this huge chemical plant there right?” Tangle shouted out like a diligent student. “I heard that it was one of the resistance’s main targets during the war.”

“Isn’t that plant the reason it got the name ‘Grey Horizons’ in the first place, because it would produce so much pollution into the air that you could literally see and smell it from miles away?”

“ _Yup, and I was born there.”_

Smiles dropped and eyes widened as the realisation dawned on Tangle and Jewel’s faces.

“Oh. Yeah, probably not great for a kid’s development to inhale toxic gases all day.” commented Tangle.

“How long did you live there for?”

_“Until I was about 7.”_

“So what made your family leave? Apart from the awful air quality of course?” Tangle asked in response.

_“A gas explosion.”_

“A what? How?”

_“Okay. So what you need to understand is that because of the chemical plant being in close proximity to the town, there were pipelines EVERYWHERE. Many underground, and just as many above running over and above buildings, even some going through buildings at times. That means that leaks of toxic gas and waste weren’t too uncommon. My dad was a maintenance worker at the plant and worked himself into the ground daily trying to just stop everything from collapsing on itself, which it often came close to doing. We lived in an apartment and a couple of blocks down was the main park for the city. Under the road next to that park was a pretty big gas pipeline. That’s where everything went down.”_

Whisper took in a deep breath.

_“One thing I forgot to mention was that the plant did some pretty intense deep sea drilling, and sometimes it would get so bad it would cause like, actual earthquakes. Combined with the poorly maintained pipes, this was a pretty obvious recipe for disaster. I still remember the day; it was sometime in the summer. I was climbing a tree while the other kids were by the playground, you know where the swings and that are, which was closer to the road than I was. Then the shaking started”._

Whisper took some time to clear her throat. She wasn’t used to talking this much.

_“The earthquakes were always awful, but something about this one was especially bad. It felt as though the ground was ripping apart below my feet. I fell off the tree, and as I was about to run for safety, everything flashed white, and there was a huge ‘BOOM’ sound. The pipeline exploded. It blew the entire road wide open. I don’t think the kids near the playground survived.”_

A silence permeated across the room. Whisper took in another deep breath.

_“The gas that got released was this magenta sort of colour, same colour as the water you normally find in Eggman’s chemical plants. It was kind of beautiful actually. Too bad it nearly killed me, haha.”_ Whisper didn’t get the laughs she expected. Jewel responded with eyes wide nervous smile. Tangle looked mortified. 

_“*sigh* Yeah it was really awful. It burned my eyes. I breathed a lot of it in and it felt like my throat and lungs were on fire and every breath I tried to take only seemed to fuel the flames. I took off in the opposite direction as fast as I could, but eventually everything went black. I passed out. I woke up a week later in a full hospital ward. I couldn’t see much of anything, and it was still very hard for me to breath, but I was at least aware of my surroundings. I was one of the lucky ones, it turned out.”_

Whisper paused to take a sip of water. “Wow I, I’m so sorry that happened to you.” Tangle consoled. “Same here. That must have been awful to live through.” added Jewel.

_“Thanks guys. It certainly wasn’t a pleasant experience. My dad along with pretty much all lower to mid level workers at the plant were fired. Absolutely none of them deserved it, in fact my dad and others like him are the reason things didn’t get even worse. I still think Eggman used the explosion as an excuse to just replace all of them with his robots. But yeah, after that my parents now had no consistent source of income and a child that was partially blind and mute. It would take me over a year before I could see again and another two before I could actually talk again.”_

“Dang. Pretty sure you got out of Grey Horizons as soon as you could.” said Tangle.

_“We did, though it’s not as though we had much of a choice. No one was hiring and the explosion made the air quality even worse. If I stayed I definitely would’ve died. So my parents packed up and with what little money we had we drove south to Sunset City. My mom had an old friend who could offer us some temporary shelter. It was much easier to breathe there.”_

“So you’re telling me that the air in Sunset City was an upgrade? Goodness.” Jewel said incredulously.

_“Yeah seems like it haha.”_

“Speaking of, is this the part where you meet the Diamond Cutters?” asked Tangle.

_“Getting there, first I need to tell you about how I got into Sunset City Academy in the first place. It’s not as dramatic as this story, not for a while at least.”_

* * *

“You know, I never really held much of a grudge against my foster parents.” said Mimic.

“Really?”

“Yeah. Not even against the other foster kids I lived with. Not even the leopard dudes.”

“Intriguing. Why so?”

“At the end of the day, we’re all in the same boat really.” Mimic answered. “Just a bunch of fools dealt a hard hand by this pitiful existence, and there are times where you’ve got to learn to sink or swim. They obviously chose to swim, or try to at least.”

“You seem to sympathize with them quite a bit.”

“Sympathize? Please, probably some, very mild-at-best form of pity. They can screw themselves otherwise.”

“Hmm.” Alex said as he furrowed a brow. “So, at this point you were now without a home and spent your days on the streets of Sunset City. What was it like?”

“What did you think it was like Alex?” Mimic sneered.

“Probably what you thought it was like, I just felt it would be better for you to put it in your own words. Maybe there are some things I could miss.”

“What is there to miss? It was awful okay, like living on the streets normally is _ALEX,_ but you probably don’t realise that you stuck up, silver spoon son of a-”

“Was it not more liberating?”

“Okay seriously can you stop interrupting me while I’m trying to cuss you out it’s starting to get pretty frustrating.”

Dr Vulp persisted. “Was it not more liberating to live without having to listen to authority figures telling you want to do?”

Mimic, seeing that Vulp wasn’t budging, reluctantly answered back, ”Somewhat.”

“Not completely?”

“No, ‘cause I still ended up getting my teeth kicked in by dudes 3 times my size. Being able to mimic their bodies and steal their stuff worked well until they started asking where their sleeping bag was and why there were suddenly 2 of them. I was stupid with my mimicking abilities as a kid. I was sloppy, reckless and brash. I spent more time playing pranks on strangers then actually being productive.”

“So what changed? You seem to be in far more control of your abilities now.”

“What changed was I went to prison.” Mimic said.

“And what about prison made you more capable with your abilities?”

“It made me more crafty and incisive. I couldn’t just brute force my way out like I normally had, otherwise I’d get killed, or worse. So as much as I hated it, I had to make allies, ‘friends’ if you will. It didn’t take long to realise that pretty much everyone was just as desperate as me to get out, and that guards are generally spineless and/or incompetent.” Mimic said as he side-eyed the guards at the door. “So really busting out was often easier done than said.”

“Your record seems to support this funnily enough.”

“You guys need to improve your prison security.”

“Well why are you asking me, I’m just a psychiatrist.” Alex said with a laugh. Mimic couldn’t help but snicker as well.

“Getting back on topic, it was around this time that your eyes were to quote, ‘opened’.”

“Mhm”

“So what opened them, so to speak?”

Mimic took some time to steady himself. He then began.

“So it started with a moose, a racoon and my third time in prison.”

* * *

“How hard was it to make friends while you were..mute.? Apologies for lack of a better term.” asked Jewel.

_“Nah it’s okay. Yeah it definitely wasn’t easy. I spent most of my days at home kind of just, existing I guess. This meant that no one really came to visit, and I couldn’t really visit anyone else as well. I can’t remember what exactly I was doing with myself, but whatever it was I didn’t enjoy it. I did learn braille though.”_

“Woah cool! You know I tried to learn braille when I was in sc- Jewel stop laughing.”

_“Wait I don’t get it.”_

“I’m sorry.” Jewel said as she gasped for air between her laughs. “I’m just.. oh goodness. Tangle, would you care to explain how you ‘tried’ to learn braille.”

“No.” Tangle said resolutely.

_“I’d like to know how you learnt braille.”_ Whisper said with a smile. 

"It’s, ugh no, it’s embarrassing.”

_“I promise I won’t laugh.”_

“*sigh* So my school had this program.”

_“Uh huh”._

“It was about helping people with disabilities.”

_“Uh, huh.”_

“So I thought ‘hey, I like extra credit and helping people, and my neighbour has a disability, maybe I can help by learning how to communicate with her.’”

“You forgot to mention that your neighbour was deaf.”

“JEWEL!” 

At this point Jewel had fallen over herself laughing, Whisper was chuckling quite a bit while Tangle’s face went tomato red.

“I can just imagine Tangle walking up to her like ‘Oh hey there Mrs Arkal, I know that you’re deaf and thus have a very particular method of communication, so I spent a week learning the completely wrong method of communication.’ hahahahahaaa!” Jewel bantered. 

“I got deafness and blindness mixed up a lot as a kid okay.” muffled Tangle through her tail.

_“Well I think it was really sweet of you that you were willing to learn just to make someone else’s life just that bit better.”_

“Thanks, though I never actually finished learning braille.”

_“I could teach you, if you want that is.”_

“I would like that, thanks.”

_“No problem. Take it from me, it makes such a massive difference. I met one of the Diamond Cutters that way.”_

“Wait seriously?” gasped Tangle.

_“Yeah. So you know Claire right? Jewel if you’re wondering, she was the howler monkey. Well she had a younger sister my age called Annie. She went to Sunset City Academy and they ran a similar program to what your school did, though it was an extra-curricular sort of thing. We met for an afternoon and got along pretty well. She visited more and before you know it we’re friends. We had so much in common; she liked books, the great outdoors. She was somehow even more introverted than I was. She and Claire even taught me archery._

“Woah, SICK!”

“Indeed. They sound like amazing friends.”

_“Annie and Claire were basically the reason I went to SCA. The school fees were too high for my parents to pay, but there was scholarship exam the school offered that I wrote and-”_

“You got the scholarship?” Jewel asked with anticipation?

_“I got the scholarship.”_ Whisper smiled bac

"WOO YEAH! Cute, strong AND smart! The perfect combination!”

_“I wouldn’t say smart. Trust me I peaked academically in 7th grade.”_ Whisper chuckled

“So how did you end up meeting the rest of the Diamond Cutters?” asked Jewel once again.

_“The same way you normally meet friends in high school. I met Slinger at soccer practice who later introduced me to Smithy since they were already best friends. And then we kinda just, stuck together, right through. Last year would’ve been our graduation year but…”_

Whisper sighed.

_“Then the war started.”_


End file.
